FIDDLY, FRUSTRATING BUT WORTH IT IN THE END Kibbeh

Sometimes a recipe comes along that I simply fall in love with. Sad I know.

Not sure about you, but I'm always on the look out for new recipes whether it be on the back of a flour packet, friends book shelves or the Internet. I'm particularly partial to the stack of 'overseas' magazines in our local GP's waiting rooms (where, with 3 boys and an elderly mother I spend a fair amount of time). I used to hastily scribble down the general idea but I've recently discovered the joys of using one's iPad to snatch a good looking recipe.

From Homes & Garden, April 2014

So, kibbeh.

Firstly I love Alice Hart. She writes so beautifully (for the NY Times, Telegraph and others) and her recipes are seasonal and simple.  Secondly I'm always looking for any recipe that includes chard, because I just cannot resist the huge glossy green bunches we have at the moment. Thirdly I adore Middle Eastern food.  Next to French it could be my favourite. After Swahili. Before Italian. Swedish too. Not forgetting Irish and English. Southern. Real Mexican. You get the picture.

So Alice Hart, chard, pine nuts, Middle Eastern all added up to Kibbeh. What not to love?

I'd never heard of it before.

I had to keep re-reading the recipe to try and work out the order of things as so much was going on - mash this, drain that, chop this, cool that. On and on. As a bit of a veteran of over extending myself in the recipe department I recognised immediately that Alice's recipe was deceptively easy.  Ask my husband, I'm only happy if my food looks just like the picture. I've been known to photograph my cooking efforts right next to the recipe book photo - that's Type A for you.

I fretted and procrastinated about the kibbeh because I just loved the idea of them but am fundamentally lazy, so after a hefty case of Fridge Block -  I think I made about 3 or 4 attempts before I really did not get it right and now I'm ready to talk about it:  They tasted delicious but did not in anyway look like the picture. Hence no photos.

Chard Kibbeh with Pine Nut & Feta Stuffing

For the kibbeh:
600g floury potatoes, cut into chunks and boiled
200g bulghur wheat, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes
300g chard
2 tbsp (plus) plain flour
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 ground coriander

For the filling:
Half the chard (see above)
2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
150 g 'Persian' (ie soft) feta. Greek Gourmet Feta works. Alice had Buffola Mozzarella, but that didn't seem very Persian and we can't find it much anyway. Feta worked.

To serve:
Greek yoghurt
Chopped dill
Pomegranate seeds (if you can find them)
Hummus would also be good, I think

Method: 

Take a deep breath......

1. Boil the potatoes in salted water until soft and then mash.
2. Drain the bulghur wheat after soaking and wring out in a tea cloth to get rid of all the moisture.
3. Steam the chard until soft and then also wring out in a tea towel until all the moisure has gone. This really is an important step as I found out to my cost. Chard has a surprising amount of water in it! Keep wringing and then wring some more.
4. Once wrung, chop half the chard finely and half of it roughly. Reserve the finely chopped pile for the filling.
5. Mix together the mashed potato, the wrung-out bulghur wheat and the water-free chard together into a stiff 'dough'. Add all the spices. 
6. Add the flour to the potato bulghur wheat chard mix to bind together. I ended up using more than 2 tbsp, but see point 3. I was tempted to use an egg, but resisted. 
7. Leave the 'dough' in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to 'harden up'. Mine was still quite mushy, but see point 3 (again). It had a spell in the freezer too. 
8. Make the filling by toasting and coarsely chopping up the pine nuts, adding to the mushed up feta and lots of seasoning. The process is about to get messy.
9. Form the 'dough' into plump little torpedoes - sort of 'barquette' or how you'd turn a turnip. 
10. Then you make a hole in the middle of the torpedo a la mudpie and push in the stuffing. You close up the hole with an extra 'bung' of 'dough' and re-shape. This was the bit that I seriously fell down on. They are meant to look like this (see below) before you fry them, but mine didn't, they looked more like cow pats. They are then meant to look like sort of vegetarian Scotch Eggs once completed, but we didn't manage that either : 

Google Images

Google Images 

1. Alice's recipe says that the "shaped kibbeh may be chilled on trays for up to 48 hours". I would highly recommend this, but in the real world children need to be fed and my fridge is too small so I ignored this step to my cost. I think chilling would help.
2. Alice then says that the kibbeh can be baked for up to 20 minutes in a 190C oven. If you want   your kibbeh to look like Alice's - don't do this, I did and they looked like baked cow pats. Not attractive, but still smelt delicious so I knew we were on the right track.
3. I then defaulted to Alice's other suggestion which was to shallow fry them in about 3cm of oil (I used Sunflower) which is endless and requires a glass or three of something alcoholic to pass the time. At which point one's kibbeh do end up looking like an amateurish version of Alice's which I was happy with and more than ready to sit down. 

The Best Part: "Serve hot kibbeh with spoonfuls of Greek yoghurt and a scattering of chopped dill and pomegrante seeds. Warm flatbreads and a green salad make ideal accompaniments".

We ate ours in toasted pita breads with lots of yoghurt and dill, like you would falaffel (out of ignorance). The result was Heaven. Starving children and half-squiffed mothers woolfed them down in a matter of minutes.

I'm now determined to get them right. I generally don't like fiddly food but sometimes the result are just worth it.